


A Sorta Fairytale

by Lirillith



Category: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arguing, F/F, Female Friendship, Friendship, Love/Hate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-13
Updated: 2011-09-13
Packaged: 2017-10-23 17:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/253110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirillith/pseuds/Lirillith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU, taking off from the last moments of episode 8.  Kyoko and Sayaka get a chance to talk things out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Sorta Fairytale

    "Whenever I wish for someone to be happy, someone else has to suffer just as much.  That's what it means to be a Puella Magi."  Sayaka turned her face toward Kyoko, and Kyoko reached for her.  Sayaka's left hand was still extended, holding her near-black soul gem.  Kyoko reached out to grasp that hand with the both of hers, banging the grief seed against the gem.  The edge of the seed dug into her palm, and she hoped she wasn't putting too much grief into it, but she wasn't sure it really mattered.  Sayaka blinked at her, the tears breaking free and running down her face, and Kyoko impulsively grabbed the other girl's shoulder and then closed her eyes and kissed her.  She'd never done that before, to anyone, let alone another girl, and she halfway missed Sayaka's lips and got the corner of her mouth instead.  Her mouth was slightly wet when she pulled back a second later, where she hit a tear, and Sayaka was wide-eyed and staring at her. 

    "What...?"

    "You can't just let your Soul Gem go like that!  Are you nuts?  I mean look at yourself!  You could barely even stand up or walk.  That was a grief seed you earned, from that witch you killed, so it's not like it's one of my _sinful_ grief seeds or whatever your problem is with me."

    "You kissed me."

    "I guess so."

    She released her awkward grip on Sayaka's hand, finally, and looked at the grief seed, then at Sayaka's soul gem, now a bright, glowing blue. 

    "Why?"

    "I don't know.  'Cause I can't stop thinking about you, I guess."

    "I can't stop thinking about you, either, but that's because you piss me off." 

    "Well that goes double for me!" Kyoko lashed back, to keep herself from crying with relief.  This girl actually sounded like Sayaka again. "What the hell is wrong with you, anyway?  If your Soul Gem blacks out, you die!"

    "Kyubey never said a word about that!"

    "He never said a word about turning us into zombies, either!" 

    "Yeah."  Sayaka went quiet again, and Kyoko cursed herself. 

    "Listen, I know you think I'm horrible, stealing and scrounging and looking out for myself, but I need to get by somehow."

    "You can't just let familiars attack people!  Even though people are horrible, you don't know who they'll attack.  They won't always hurt people who deserve it."

    "Sayaka, what happened?"

 

* * *

 

    In the end, she took Sayaka back to the hotel where she'd been staying, and they sat on the bed - Sayaka at the head, Kyoko at the foot - and Sayaka spilled out the whole story, incoherently.  The men on the train, the childhood friend who hadn't even told her he was discharged from the hospital, the friend that took him away.  Kyoko had known some of it already, but she let Sayaka talk.  "And I just don't even see why I'm trying to protect people, if that's what they're like," Sayaka finally trailed off, but she sounded less bitter than tired. 

    "You kind of see now why I just think of it all as witches and grief seeds?"

    "But that's wrong!" 

    "But I'm stuck this way.  I have to keep going somehow."  She offered Sayaka the canister of chips, but Sayaka shook her head.  "Why are you so stubborn?"

    "You get things by stealing, don't you?"

    "Why do you _care?"_

    "Because there's right and wrong in the world!"

    Kyoko buried her face in her hands.  "Look.  I don't steal because it's fun.  I steal because I need to.  I let familiars grow for the same reason.  Mitakihara's bigger than Kasamino.  You can probably get enough grief seeds here without farming witches, but I haven't had a chance to be sure of that."

    "That doesn't matter," Sayaka said mulishly.  "It's wrong to let familiars hurt people." 

    "Even those two assholes on the train?"

    Sayaka stood up and stomped to the window.  "Shut up!  I think the right thing is to protect even them.  I just don't want to."

    "You're probably right."  Sayaka didn't turn around, so Kyoko kept talking.  "I know I used to think that way.  I told you what happened with my dad.  After that I didn't want to think that way anymore, because look where that kind of thinking got my family.  But ever since I met you... I guess you remind me of all of that."  She crunched a chip, thinking.  "You can't save everybody.  I don't want to see you run yourself into the ground trying to.  But you're probably right about familiars.  That's how Mami always thought, too."

    "You knew her?"  Sayaka turned back from the window then. 

    "Yeah.  Before my family... you know.  She taught me a lot."

    "I didn't know that."

    Kyoko shrugged.  "It's in the past." 

    "I didn't really think about right and wrong so much before I met Mami-san.  Finding out that you really could protect people... I started seeing things differently."

    "So that's why you're being such a jerk about where I get my food?"  Sayaka folded her arms over her chest.  Kyoko grinned around her Pringle.  "It's not like I'm taking money from people's wallets.  Or robbing convenience stores.  I crack open an ATM once in a while.  I don't mug people."

    "I guess it could be worse."

    "What kind of job am I supposed to get?  I don't have a cell phone or a fixed address."

    "Maybe you could move in with that transfer student."

    "Who-- Akemi?  Have you _seen_ her apartment?  Creepy as hell."

    "Somehow that doesn't surprise me."  Sayaka left the window, climbed back onto the bed.  "So you've seen it?"

    "Yeah.  She has it set up like a research lab on witches or something.  She wants me to help her fight the Walpurgisnacht.  It's supposed to be coming soon.  Soonish."

    "What's that?"

    "It's a really strong witch.  The strongest, probably.  I only know a little about it..." Sayaka stretched out atop the covers.  "Are you even listening?"

    "I'm just tired.  Fighting with you charged me up a bit, but now it's getting to me."

    "Then I'll tell you in the morning," Kyoko said, letting her hair out of its ponytail.  "I'm too tired to tell you a bedtime story."  Sayaka just yawned in response.  Kyoko flopped on her back, hands linked behind her head.  "It's up to you to get the light," Kyoko told her.  "You're closer to the lamp."

    "Yeah, yeah." 

 

* * *

 

    At some point in the night, Kyoko had shed her sweatshirt.  Sayaka, at some other point, had peeled off the sweater of her uniform.  Kyoko woke around dawn to notice that.  Sayaka was fast asleep, curled up on her side with her head on the pillows, her sweater and socks now missing.  Her face was slack in sleep.  She didn't look innocent, or angelic, like her parents used to say she and Momo looked when sleeping; she just looked kind of stupid.  She was drooling on the pillow.  She did look young.  Maybe that was what her parents had always meant. 

    When Kyoko returned from the bathroom, Sayaka had shifted in her sleep, rolling onto her back, one arm flung over her head.  Kyoko peeled the covers back and crawled in between them.  She didn't have any reason to get up early, and if Sayaka wanted to play hooky, more power to her.  Maybe she'd be a little less self-righteous if Kyoko pointed that out. 

 

* * *

 

    When she woke up for good, a few hours later, she saw Sayaka poking around the little coffee machine.  "You drink coffee?" Kyoko asked.

    "Not usually.  Mom won't let me, says it stunts your growth.  Like I'm not tall enough." 

    "I don't really like the taste," Kyoko said, bailing out of bed.  "So don't go messing with it unless you're going to use it."

    "Okay, okay," Sayaka sighed. 

    Kyoko made for the bathroom, not about to offer it first to her guest.  Through the door, she called, "So what's your plan?  You need to head home today?  Let your parents know you're okay?"

    "I emailed them before my phone died last night," Sayaka replied.  "While we were on the way to the hotel.  I guess I should go home.  I don't want to go back to school, though."

    "Who would?" 

    When Kyoko emerged, hair swept back into her ponytail, ribbon in place, Sayaka was sitting on the foot of the bed.  "I can get out of your way, though," she offered.  "You don't need to baby-sit me."

    She didn't actually want Sayaka to leave.  It was kind of nice to have company again.  "Your choice," she said, kneeling on the floor by her two bags of snacks.  "If you want to stick around, it's fine."  While Kyoko rummaged, she heard the bathroom door close, and the sound of water running.  Kyoko sat on the floor, opening one of her packages of cream pan.  She liked having sweet stuff for breakfast. 

    She was on her third by the time the bathroom door reopened.  "I didn't even notice all that stuff last night," Sayaka said.

    "Hungry?"  Kyoko tossed her one of the packages, and Sayaka caught it reflexively.  "You weren't paying much attention to anything last night."

    "Yeah, I'm starving, actually," Sayaka said, turning the package over in her hands.  Kyoko waited for the next argument, but Sayaka just tore the package open and took a bite.  Kyoko grinned as she bit into her next roll.  "Maybe we could go get some more food somewhere else?" Sayaka suggested.  "I like to have eggs." 

    "Sure," Kyoko said, her mouth full.  "Lots of restaurants and bakeries around here.  And I can tell you about Walpurgisnacht."

    "And..." Sayaka suddenly turned red, and Kyoko watched her with concern.  Was she somehow silently choking?  "I'd rather know why you kissed me last night," she blurted. 

    "Oh."  Kyoko felt her own face heating up.  "I sort of thought you'd forgotten all about that."

    "No!  I just... why did you do that?"

    "I _wish_ you'd forgotten all about that," Kyoko muttered.  "I did it because I like you, okay?"  Sayaka was just staring, and for some reason Kyoko's mouth kept moving well after it should have stopped.  "I like you, and I was afraid you were going to let your soul gem completely go out.  You were acting so weird.  And I was already kind of grabbing you as it was, and holding hands with you and stuff.  And you were just kind of... limp.  It was like waking up Sleeping Beauty or something, I don't know."

    "Oh."  Sayaka just stared at her hands.

    "It was just stupid, okay?  I know you like that boy."

    "That's one-sided, though," Sayaka said.  "Clearly."  She didn't sound as angry about it as Kyoko would have expected.  A little angry, but not much.  "I don't dislike you."

    "Coulda fooled me," Kyoko said, but her face seemed to be trying to smile.  She scrambled to her feet.  "Let's go find you something you actually want for breakfast."

    "And tell me about Walpurgisnacht," Sayaka said, going to retrieve her socks and sweater.  "Could I fight beside you?"

    "If you'll let me give you some training first, probably."  Kyoko pulled her shoes on.  "You don't want to fight a Walpurgisnacht unprepared.  And let's face it, you've barely had any experience fighting."

    "I guess that's fair," Sayaka said, joining her at the door.  As Kyoko pulled her jacket on, Sayaka murmured, "Sleeping Beauty, huh?"

    "Shut up!"

    "I'm not complaining!  It's better than the Little Mermaid."

    "It seemed to wake you up, anyway."

    "I... guess it did."  Sayaka took a step back, and then bowed low.  "Kyoko, thank you."

    "It, uh, it was nothing."  Kyoko fidgeted with her ponytail.  "I mean, um..."

    Sayaka straightened.  "I felt like I couldn't... I didn't think I could kiss Kyosuke, or... anything.  Because of what I'm like now.  But you broke me out of that."

    "I'm the same as you, that way."  She reached for Sayaka's hand as she opened the door.  Maybe they were both zombies, but the fingers that curled around hers were warm. 


End file.
